Drowners
''" Never swim alone when the realms merge, for the Drowners seek to carry out their purge." ''- The Story Teller of Windshesiere. A moonlit night, so long ago... ...A marriage had been held, ceremony. Bound together forever under the God that they shared devotion too. Planned for years, since childhood was this fisherman to be married to the farmer's daughter. It wasn't a noble, grand marriage of any sort...but it was one founded on honesty and hope for a better tomorrow, for both families. The kiss was had, and the cleric had declared it official as Husband and Wife accepted the congratulations from loved ones, before hopping in their carriage to be taken away to their romantic night, the night of which they would become single flesh. Out of the village the carriage rode, blazing a trail alongside the cliff sides of the Kingdom Of Dreams, with the sea to their side...and the moonlight illuminating the water, almost as if it too wished this couple a loving night. As the bride and groom stared out to the sea, they spoke to each other of their love and their hopes. They remarked how this beautiful sea before them was as their love would be, vast and endless. Glowing in the most trying of times, in the darkest of nights. As the groom turned away, to speak to the driver...the brides eyes widened, as she saw something out of the corner of her eyes. In that sparkling sea, in that place of dreams....it seemed cold eyes blinked at her, from beneath the waves. Tugging on the sleeve of the groom, he assured her it was a trick of the light...and so they rode.. To a cottage a few miles out, high on the cliff side by the sea, which the fisherman's family used to rest when out searching the waters for the more...exquisite, catch. Inside they went, and it was not long...before flesh was with flesh, and their marriage was consummated. In love they were, lost in each other... When there was a sound, a low....wailing cry. The husband pulled away, and he stepped outside. Concerned for a wounded animal, or a person in need...he drew his hunting knife, as the wife plead for him to stay inside. He assured her he was only going to check, and into that dark night he went. The wife, broken and new laid there for some time. Her husband had been gone, and the clouds were now hiding the moon....as a stronger darkness befell the land. Sensations ran through her mind, as she weakly called out for his name. Paranoia, fear....the feeling that she was being choked by this darkness, her breath becoming rapid and short. Tears flew down her face, as she couldn't handle it anymore...she too, would step outside that door. Nothing to be seen, just pitch black where her vision extended. Only a few feet ahead, but her feet felt something...wet. She could not tell if it was blood or mud, something slimey and slippery...and so she lit her torch, and looked down. It was red, yet it was also brown. That's when she heard it. The scream. The scream of desperation, a cry for help! The wife knew it to be her husbands voice, and she followed! Down the cliffside, past the rocks and through that dark night she ran! To the beach she came, calling out his name! The moon had returned only a little, and the light was limited. Tears flowed down her face, as she ran along where sand and water met, and screamed out! Screamed for anything, to hear any sound. She was so desperate, so upset, so scared...that she didn't hear it. The gentle sounds of crunching.... Her eyes managed to see then, as the moon returned from behind the clouds.. ...Her husband, hovering over the sea about ten feet up. Something dripping from his body. Water--but wetter. Red liquids, white chunks of bone and cartilage falling off of his person...as she fell to the sands below, and shrieked in terror. His body was limp and being held by long, pale bony fingers. As she noticed it then...that he was not hovering, he was impaled on the long nail of a horrible...creature. Bony, as if a skeleton...ten feet tall, but so thin...it's eyes black holes with floating yellow orbs hanging in the sockets. It was picking him apart, organs floating towards it's mouth by some strange astral magic...as this beast? It lifted the groom upwards, and placed it's small hole which could be assumed...to be it's mouth, towards the hole in the grooms stomach. And it drank. The water and the insides of the groom, swallowed by this beast...as it discarded his corpse, dropping it into the water with a soft plop. The bride was frozen. Nothing could be done...as that beast turned it's head towards her. Before she could hardly move, it was already above her. It's hand smashing downwards as it's claw impaled itself through her back and out through her stomach, tearing her stomach lining and shutting down all her motor functions below her neck.. She felt immense pain, torture, the worst feeling...a feeling beyond anything she could have imagined...as she was dragged on his nail from the sands, and into the water. Impaled and bleeding, her mind breaking...she was held under, and it didn't take long for her movement to cease. The same fate as her husband, most likely. Impaled horribly, and dragged into the water to be drowned. As this beast, the..."Drowner"....lifted her up, and started to pick out the meat and organs it didn't desire....before drinking her insides and plopping her down under. The Drowner, now satisfied with two meals and two deaths. Folded it's hands, across it's chest. It then laid back, and sank down below. And listened for sounds from above, for any unsuspecting people to come near it's water...so it could cause them great woe. Beware the moonlight, beware the sunlight...beware your rivers, beware your bath tubs. From sea to well, there is no sure safe place. The boney fingers will come, and seal your fate.